Legislation introduced in Congress last week would provide paid leave for federal civilian employees who have or adopt a child for the first time.

The Federal Employees Paid Parental Leave Act (H.R. 6275), introduced by Rep. Barbara Comstock, R-Va., would provide federal workers 12 weeks of paid leave following the birth, adoption or fostering of a child. Currently, feds may take up to 12 weeks of parental leave, but it is unpaid.

In a statement, Comstock said the measure would bring federal agencies more in line with benefits offered in the private sector.

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“Today most large employers provide at least 12 weeks paid [leave] and this is a competitiveness issue as well as a retention issue for the federal workplace to attract and maintain the top talent in the workplace,” she said. “Paid parental leave has been proven to help women remain in the workforce, lower infant mortality rates, improve infant health, and reduce depression and other postpartum mental health issues in women.”

National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association President Richard Thissen applauded the bill’s introduction in a statement.

The Office of Personnel Management announced last week that military retirees and family members will soon gain expanded access to government-administered dental and vision insurance.

Until this year, most federal civilian retirees, their family members, retired reservists and military survivors have been eligible to enroll in the Federal Employees Dental and Vision Insurance Program. The 2017 National Defense Authorization Act granted additional eligibility to military retirees and their families and to dependents of active duty service members.

The TRICARE Retiree Dental Plan, which provides coverage to most of the those newly eligible for FEDVIP, will phase out at the end of 2018. Current enrollees will have the opportunity to choose a FEDVIP plan during OPM’s insurance open season, which will run from Nov. 12 through Dec. 10.

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In a press release, OPM stressed that there is no automatic enrollment in FEDVIP for people who were covered by the TRICARE Retiree Dental Program before the transition. The agency has launched a website to provide information for the approximately 5.4 million newly eligible feds and their families and help ease the transition process.

A House panel on Tuesday released its blueprint for fiscal 2019 spending, which echoes the Trump administration’s proposals targeting federal employee retirement programs.

Republicans on the House Budget Committee said its “Budget for a Brighter American Future” would balance the budget within nine years through a mixture of cuts to mandatory spending and other federal programs. The plan also calls for a number of cuts to federal retirement programs, as outlined by the White House’s fiscal 2019 budget proposal, under the headline “Reform Civil Service Pensions.”

“This budget . . . calls for federal employees, including members of Congress and congressional staff, to make greater contributions to their own defined benefit retirement plans,” the committee wrote. “It would also end the special retirement supplement, which pays federal employees the equivalent of their Social Security benefits at an earlier age.”

The package also calls for “parity” between employees in the federal and private sector by “transitioning to defined contribution plans.” These proposals mirror Trump administration plans, outlined by Office of Personnel Management Director Jeff Pon in a letter to Speaker Paul Ryan last month, to eliminate Federal Employees Retirement System supplements for federal workers who retire before Social Security kicks in at...

A Democratic senator introduced a bill last month that would allow students to graduate from college debt-free, provided they enter public service.

The Strengthening American Communities Act (S. 2984), introduced in May by Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland but announced last week, would establish a National Public Service Education Grant program, which would pay a significant portion of students’ tuition, provided that they agree to work for at least three years in public service. The program could remove many students’ reliance on student loans to pay for post-secondary education, and allow graduates to enter the workforce debt free.

And those already working in positions eligible for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, which offers to erase debt after a decade of work in public service, would see relief after only three years.

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“The partnerships, created under the act among the federal government, states [and institutions of higher education], ensure students have a pathway to complete their degree without the burden of taking on exorbitant student loan costs,” Cardin said in a statement. “[No] individual willing to serve their community in a public service career should...

The number of pending federal retirement claims grew in May, despite the fact that the rate of new requests continued to decline last month, the Office of Personnel Management reported Tuesday.

The retirement backlog grew by around 500 claims to 18,024 in May, up from 17,489 the previous month. That happened despite a significant decrease in the number of new retirement requests, which hit a five-month low of 7,625 in May.

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Although OPM processed more than 9,000 claims in April, that figure dropped to 7,090 last month. Despite the slowdown in the number of claims, the average time OPM took to process a retirement claim on a monthly basis stayed steady at 58 days.

Last week, OPM Director Jeff Pon implemented provisions of an Obama-era executive order to boost participation in the federal government’s annual charity fundraising effort. In a memo to agencies, Pon outlined ways that agencies can improve morale and employee retention through the use of group volunteer activities as part of the Combined...